grandsons tank

[earhtmother]

we are going to put a tank in the grandsons room as he is facinated by mine. I know that no matter how much we watch and scold, he will be poking at the glass and sticking hands in the tank so I need advice for fish that will not spook easily and provide a fair amount of movement. It will only be a 20g for now so I know the amount of fish is limited. I would prefer to stay away from goldfish and was actally considering cichlids since our water is "nasty" (gh180 kh120 ph7.5/7.8) and I prefer not to chemichally treat if I dont have to. Also I have found that SAs (oscars esp) tend to be interactive and this appeals. Any information you can offer would be appreciated
elaine

 

[Lowryder]

My wife keeps guppies and they love to play with her. She runs her fingers on the glass and the follow and she sticks her hand into the tank and can pretty much pet them. I cant think of a cichlid the will not be skittish for a 20g, maybe someone else might know one

Edit: Where are my manners, welcome to AA!

 

[mfdrookie516]

Welcome to AA There arent any cichlids that i can think of off hand that would be suitable for a 20g tank, and not skittish. Shell dwellers would be great for that size tank, but they're generally very skittish and would not be out and visible a whole lot. I think maybe a gourami would be alot more suitable and a very fun fish to watch. For the most part, most any community fish would eventually get used to poking and tapping on the glass and eventually pay no attention to it

 

[jsoong]

Your water isn't "nasty"! That is just medium hardness. We got at least 50% higher GH & KH, and don't need to doctor the water for any of the common fish. So you don't need to restrict your search to cichlids.

Any of the live bearers will be fine in your water. A small school would be fun for a child.

 

[mattrox]

Dwarf gouramis come to mind. Or perhaps some Platys with their diversity in colour they would be fascinating in a tank with some corydoras catfish.

 

[Lowryder]

Dwarf gouramis come to mind. Or perhaps some Platys with their diversity in colour they would be fascinating in a tank with some corydoras catfish.

The dwarf gourami is known to be timid especially when kept alone.

 

[earhtmother]

thanks for the current responses, please keep them coming

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far.
jaysoong, lowryder - As far as hardness goes those readings are pretty much the end of the scale for my test kits but if you say they are not bad... I have never been able to keep guppys without constant buffering of my water, same goes for tetras to a certain extent. Livebearers dont do too bad neither do gouramis. Rainbows and cichlids seem to be the only species that come close to thriving in my water without any chemical tweaking and surprisingly enough corys, whom I love (school of 15-20 in my 55). I am thinking we will go with Gouramis, but undecided for sure yet.

elaine

 

[Lowryder]

I just checked my PH in my guppy tank and it was 7.6 which is right around where you are, I dont know what my gh and kh are but I can tell you that I do have hard water. I did some digging and found a cichlid that might work for a 20g, its called a rainbow cichlid. The description in one of my books describes it as, '' a not too large cichlid that is relatively peaceful and full of peronality''.

 

[ampa one]

welcome to AA